


Unseen

by KRMalana



Series: Norsekink meme Fills [3]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Baby!Loki, Blind!Hodur, Blind!Loki, Brothers, Community: norsekink, Conspiracy, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Twins, blind discrimination
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-01 17:00:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRMalana/pseuds/KRMalana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odin has three sons:  Thor, and twins Hodur and Baldur.  But in there is something wrong:  Hodur was born blind.  The young boy has struggled since not only is he blind, Asgard knows not what to do for him.  And, as much as it is denied, he gets the feeling that he is at fault.  </p><p>That is, until the newest son of Odin is brought home from Jotunheim.  Loki.  And he too was born blind.  At first resenting the new child, Hodur soon warms to him and vows to protect Loki from the pain no one protected him from.</p><p>But... what if the blindness is not something genetic, as Odin fears?  What if something is attacking the children of the Allfather?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Newborn

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from norsekink: http://norsekink.livejournal.com/12132.html?thread=29888612#t29888612 Anyone else noticed I've pretty much adopted any Hodur related prompt?
> 
> "I've read prompts where Loki was born blind or went blind because Asgard was too bright for his eyes before and I'd like something similar.
> 
> Hodur, twin of Baldur, was born blind. For years the little boy struggles, not just because he's blind, but because Asgard doesn't know what to do for him. Baldur, Thor, and possibly Tyr if wanted, have no such disabilities, and therefore no one really understands him.
> 
> Then, Loki is born or brought to Asgard. (If Loki is still Jotun but was born blind, maybe Odin could be his father still and therefore angst because maybe the blindness is genetic.) The baby can't see anything either, and while Hodur initially resents him because he's sick of everyone wetting themselves as of course "Hodur's blind too so he and Loki will have such a special bond", he does end up warming to the child. Soon enough, the two are inseparable, with Hodur helping Loki deal with being blind in Asgard.
> 
> Maybe there can be angst when Loki's eyes heal either through time or magic or medicine, but I'd love to just see the brothers' relationship develop."

He let the cool softness slide under his fingers. The simple touch both allowed him to feel any decay int he blossom and release another wave of its scent. Finding it worthy he plucked the bloom and placed it into the basket with the others. Later they would be arranged in a vase and presented to Mother. She had been stressed lately. Each of the different blooms and plants had soothing effects for the mind, heart, and breathing. He’d do anything to help her be happy again.  
  
Over his right shoulder, the side closest to the palace, came the words of voices. Guards, newly arrived for their shift, one with a limp in his left leg, sneered between each other. Why was a boy in the gardens? Why was he picking flowers like a woman? They thought they couldn’t be heard. But Hodur could and did hear them. He kept himself crouched, fists curling into the earth, anger twitching across his shoulders.  
  
When they were gone Hodur released his breath slowly. He heard it rustled the plants before him. He needed calm. There was no reason for anger. It was just the same as always. The way it had always been. Gathering his basket he swept out of the gardens and into the palace, mobbing towards his room. He knew the path, memorized into his mind. Under his bare feet he knew the stones, the rugs and furs, and the polished woods.  
  
He came to the strong, thick oak of their… he swallowed, his… room and went in. Nothing had been touched. And he could feel that the last person to have been in here had been himself. Good. The servants had gotten the hint to leave his room in peace and stop ‘cleaning’ things. He liked things where he placed them and not to have to hunt for hours when someone moved them. He set the basket down on the table and hovered by the newly wrought door in the wall between his room and the room next door. Hodur did not need to knock or call out to know his twin wasn’t there.  
  
He could feel him in the back of his mind. A warm familiar blaze off in the distance. Baldur. His younger twin. Near him was the wild jolting crackle that could only be their elder brother Thor. Hodur could not help himself. He opened the door a bit, just a crack. There. A shift in the air. And carried on it was the familiar scent of his twin, his dual-brother, his womb-mate. His hand dropped from the door like it had been burned. They said that he and Baldur were too old now to share the same room, let alone the same bed. They thought it odd, whispering to each other. They didn’t understand. Not the nurses, not the servants, not even their own parents.  
  
Baldur and he had never been apart. Growing, curling together in the womb. If it was not a true memory Hodur knew it was an instinct. Baldur’s hand in his, talking to each other without words, curling up at night with the sound of their other half’s breathing a steady reassurance. He hadn’t been sleeping well and he knew his twin hadn’t either. One more stress atop everything that went on.  
  
Father had left to check on things in Jotunheim… or so he had said. Long ago before their birth, their home of Asgard had been at war with the realm of the frost giants. An uneasy truce had been reached but even now and then a delicate thread would snap. So Odin had proposed a treaty. But not just any treaty. It was the ultimate treaty that would bind any realm to Asgard. No one ever him anything so, when he was younger, he had never understand what that meant. Now he had simply found out for himself.

Their mother, Lady and Queen Frigga, had been the first. The Vanir-Aesir war was even older, almost slipping into shadowy ages past. But to prove their good relations Odin had married their princess, Frigga, to be his queen and mother to his heirs.  
  
However, after many years, that had not been achieved. Then the new realm of Midgard, wild and young, had formed from the World Tree. Odin had gone to tame it or conquer if need be, to make it take its place amongst the realms. Odin allowed its freedoms… at a price. He had bedded their goddess, called Gaea in her realm and Jord in theirs, and produced a son. That newborn had been taken with Odin back to Asgard and had ever since been called Thor, his firstborn. Their eldest brother.  
  
A few years later Frigga had finally bore to Odin her own children. Sons. Twins. Hodur and Baldur. As different as light and dark if the whispers to be believed. Hodur, born first, born feet first, arm reaching behind him and refusing to let go. Holding fast to the hand of his twin, Baldur, until he was born. Odin had been filled with pride. Until he caught sight of the first twin’s eyes. Hodur never knew what he was ‘supposed’ to be born with. He didn’t know what it was like to ‘see’. But, apparently, he was the only one and that made him different. He never understood, as a child or even now at eight summers old, why people always spoke of it. The constant darkness was comforting. It was his world. Did he not have keen ears to hear? Did he not have hands and feet to feel?  
  
In any event Hodur knew that at the birth of her own children Frigga felt more secure. She could not be threatened by another woman or ousted as queen. It allowed her to relax, to even finally shower her affection on Thor. They had been happy and content. Or so Hodur had thought. Father. Mother. Brothers. Uncles. One cousin (he wished he wasn’t; Tyr was mean) and maybe more.  
  
Then the new treaty had come. And Father had sired a new baby on the Jotun King, Laufey (since there was, now, no gender among them, unless the legends of Ice Maidens was to be believed). No one had said anything but Hodur had felt the change in the air. Father was quiet. Mother flitted between happy, angry, stressed. He didn’t understand. And neither did his brothers. Actually, he was excited at the news. But Hodur could never speak it out loud, not unless he wanted to feel the burning eyes of Mother and her handmaidens.  
  
Perhaps that was why Father had gone. Perhaps the new brother or sister was soon to arrive…

Hodur had turned back to his basket when he heard the thudding of feet up the stairs. Too light to be Thor’s, too delicate to be Baldur’s. A swishing of skirts let him know it was one of the women along with her voice when she called out, “Prince Hodur? Where are you?” Several others followed her.  
  
Hodur moved to open the door but barely had time before she and the rest seemed to burst into his room. “There you are!” “Didn’t you know we were calling for you?” “You should have been at the bridge, boy.”  
  
“Why?” he asked, confused.  
  
“Why your new baby brother, of course.” It stung the way she said it. Like he was stupid for not knowing. He did not have much time to dwell on it before one of them yanked his arms up and another set a small, squirming bundle in his arms. His breath caught in his throat. “Your father sent him home straight away.”  
  
“He was born blind. See? Special, just like you.” The words were chosen one way but came out completely different. Hodur wanted to reach out and slap his small hand across the speaker’s face. Mocking. And mean.  
  
“So we knew we had to bring him to you straight away so you can take care of him.” The first woman spoke again. Behind her Hodur could hear people setting things down before shuffling out of the room. “There’s everything here to take care of him. Now be sure not to drop him, dearie.” And, with that and the close of his door, Hodur was left in the wake of the whirlwind.  
  
With his blind, newborn brother in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Family tree:
> 
> Odin + Gaea/Jord = Thor  
> Odin + Frigga = twins Hodur (blind, dark twin) and Baldur (light twin)  
> Odin + Laufey = Loki (also blind)
> 
> Basically going along with the "Odin fathers children with other realm leaders but takes them back to Asgard to keep them in line" idea/trope. Starting here, the twins are about eight years old. Hodur seems/sounds maturer than the others since he's gone through alot. Thor is about 12 or 13 while Loki is a newborn.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How is Hodur to deal with the new brother thrust upon him, simply for being blind as well?

Hodur could feel the panic rising within him.  He held the baby both loosely and tightly.  What was he supposed to do?  He had only ever held a baby a few times, always with his mother close by.  How was he to care for one?  He had no idea what to do.  How did they expect him to be able to raise him??

His gorge rose in his throat.  The women’s words echoed in his mind.  Blind.  The new baby was blind just like him.  And that, somehow, gave people leave to abandon the newborn with him.  “So?  So what?  That doesn’t mean anything!  Just being blind doesn’t mean anything here.  No one wants us.  It doesn’t make you or I special.”  It hurt to swallow but Hodur forced himself to do so.  

He moved amongst the items to see what was there, and came close to stubbing his toes.  The longer the two were alone the ore fussy the baby became.  “Stop wiggling.”  There was nothing like a cradle or a bassinette.  Where was the baby supposed to sleep?  He finally dumped out a basket to make a bed for him and lined it with a blanket for padding.  There was enough room to move a bit.  But even with that all the baby did was whimper and make louder and louder noises.

“What do you want??”  The panic was really setting in now.  What was he supposed to do?  What did everyone want him to do?  Was this some sort of test?  Or was it a punishment?  It wasn’t fair.  Hodur scrubbed at his eyes to keep the tingling there from falling.

Then the newborn started to wail.

Hodur slapped his hands over his ears.  He couldn’t do this.  As long as he could remember, everyone took it upon themselves to remind him of his condition. He was different.  And Asgard did not know what to do with him.  Some pitied him.  Some mocked him.  Most whispered or were silent. So, what, was everyone assuming here?  Look.  Another blind boy.  Let’s put him with Hodur.  They’ll be so special together.  Then they can deal with each other.  

As he thought the baby’s cries only grew higher and higher.  Hodur snapped.  “I don’t want you!”  He slammed his hands against the floor, unconsciously hoping to startle him into silence.  “Just—just go away!  You won’t be happy here.”  With that outburst Hodur scrambled to his feet and threw himself on the bed.  As he buried his head under a pillow all the anger and resentment he had tried to contain burst out.  His own crying mostly drowned out the cries of the baby.  He didn’t want a brother who was blind like him.  It wasn’t fair to the baby.  It was a horrible thing to do.  Why would anyone want a child to be blind?

Hodur’s young mind couldn’t take it and broke down into the endless rhythm of sobs.  

Eventually, as with all weeping, he did stop.

He sniggled and wiped his nose on the blanket.  The baby was quieted as well, crying piteously in tiny mewls.  Hodur set his cheek on his hand, wishing he could sink into the bed and disappear.  Yet… and yet… Hodur natural turned his ear towards the baby.  A wave of guilt washed over him.  It, no, he, was just a baby.  He didn’t know any better.  He was probably just as lost and lonely as he was…

“I’m… I’m sorry…” Hodur whispered as he snuck back towards the basket.  The sound quieted further and for a moment he feared that his motions had killed the baby.  But he made a sound, a whimpering coo.  Hodur choked, a tear freeing itself as he softly smiled.  “I’m sorry.  I’m… I’m not very good.  I’ve never raised a baby before…”  Gathering the basket he moved them both back to the bed, making sure to sit towards the side against the wall so the baby couldn’t fall off.  “Made you cry too, didn’t I?”  He gently picked the baby up from the basket, sure to support his head until he tucked the newborn in his elbow.

A settling came over him, reaching into him and relaxing his body.  He couldn’t let other people make decisions for him.  Or even what he should think.  This was his baby brother.  He dipped his sleeve in the left over water in his night mug and gently cleaned the baby’s cheeks.  The baby squirmed, uncertain with what was passing over his face.  Hodur chuckled as he heard him.  “Thor doesn’t like baths either.”

When he finished, he used his hands to gently see his baby brother.  His head was round and covered with soft wisps, “Like the down of a baby bird…” Pudgy cheeks and a tiny nose.  Two arms and two legs that would wiggle and wave.  Hodor counted out the toes and fingers, “How come they are so very tiny?  Can you hold anything yet—“ As he spoke the tiny hand wrapped around one of his own fingers.  The grip was small and yet so mighty.  He ran the pad of his thumb over the tiny fingers, listening to the sounds the baby made.  There was a smile on his lips he could not explain…

As Hodur sat with the baby in his lap he felt a tendril move from the hand of the child up his arm.  Wild.  Instinctive.  Unformed until it began to shape itself in the outside world.  Prickles moved over his skin and the hairs raised as his own inner power connected with it.  A tear slipped out of the unseeing eyes once more to roll down his cheek.  He and the baby share something else besides the blindness:  magic.

“I guess you and I are very much alike…”  Hodur whispered as he leaned closer to the baby.  Their breaths mingled for several moments before he touched their foreheads together.  A small hand brushed over his cheek, curling and patting.  The baby was already showing similarities.  Hodur preferred when people talked to him and even made a little noise.  Silence made him unsure and nervous.  “You’ll probably want me to shut up when you’re older…”

That’s when Hodur realized that the women had mentioned no name.  Why?  Didn’t he have one?  Surely Father would have named him when he received him?  Or… or maybe he was supposed to name him?  Surely he could if he was to raise him…

“Oh!”  He hadn’t even introduced himself.  “My name is Hodur.  I think father was hoping that ‘battle’ would change my eyes… You have two more brothers.  Thor; he’s the oldest and the biggest.  He likes to thump things and be loud.  Then there’s me.  Next is Baldur, he’s my twin.  T means we came from Mother’s tummy at the same time.  So you need a name too!” He played with the baby’s hands as he thought.  What were some words or names he liked, something no one else had, that would be special for his brother.  Then he thought of one, “How about Loki?”

There was a happy sound in reply from the baby.  So Loki it was.

~*~*~

The first night was… trying.  Hodur had never spent so much time with a baby before so thee was much he did not know.  He hoped Loki would forgive him, which was what he spoke when it took him a good while to change a diaper.  He smelled it right way, but just how to undo the dirty fabric and redo the clean one took time.  Luckily the women had left a good number of cloth diapers.  He was sure to bury the dirty ones deep in the laundry basket and leave it out for the servants to take to the washers in the morning.

Loki tried to let him know when he needed something by crying or making sounds of distress.  Which Hodur realized after several trials.  It had taken him one particularly loud one to realize that Loki was hungry.  “But…what do you eat?”  He had no idea.  And when he felt in Loki’s mouth he felt that he had no teeth yet.  Loki sucked hard at the digit, whimpering when no food came forth.  “Oh!  Milk!  That’s what baby animals drink, why not our babies?”  And then came the next problem.  They had left him a bottle, but no milk.

The servant he tracked down had been grumpy about it, and mean.  Hodur had covered Loki’s ears when she had said “you’d never make _me_ nurse something like him.”  But Hodur, protective, wouldn’t stand for it.  He’d put his foot down and demanded she fetch him milk from a momma goat or something a baby could handle.  

“Some people are just very silly at times, Loki.”  Hodur whispered to the baby as he sucked contentedly at the bottle.  “I’m a big brother, not a momma goat with milk.”  He’d have to be sure to always keep an ear on Loki.  He wouldn’t let the words that others said get to him as he grew up like Hodur had experienced before him.  Maybe he could keep all the awful words and whispers away, so Loki would be happy.

“Yes, that’s what I’ll do…”  Hodur declared sleepily as he went back to sleep after feeding Loki.  A little nest in the middle of the bed, swaddled on all sides by blankets so the baby couldn’t roll away.  Hodur curled around him on the edge of the bed side so he couldn’t fall off.  And he had stuffed an extra blanket into the space between the wall and bed too.  “I’ll always keep you safe, baby brother…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags and character list will probably grow as the story progresses. 
> 
> Hodur is temporarily overwhelmed by the pressure on him (since he is only a child himself) and it breaks him for a moment. But in that moment he realizes that he and Loki are the same. There was no one to protect him from the pain and discrimination his disability brought him. But he knows he can protect Loki from growing up with the same.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldur and Thor suddenly hear the news that the number of brothers has now grown to four.

Helga looked up as the door to prince Hodur’s room opened suddenly.  The blind boy stepped out with a bundle in his arms.  He looked harried and tired, dark circles starting under his eyes.  Whatever was the matter now?  “Did Baldur come up to his room last night?” asked the boy.

“No,” she replied, “he and Thor fell asleep at the dinner last night so your mother thought it best to let them rest there.”

“Oh…” was all the boy said.  He looked down at the bundle even though he saw naught as he adjusted it.  A fluffy crown of black hair peeked out along with the pudgy face of a newborn.  Ah yes.  She had heard that the newest child of Odin had arrived yesterday.  The rumors of his blindness must be true for him to already be in the Blind One’s care.  “If you see Baldur, would you tell him to come see me?”

“If I get the chance,” she answered.  She didn’t bother to bow her head or curtsy.  Why do so if he wouldn’t be able to see it.

It turned out that Baldur wasn’t told until later that afternoon.  He came bounding up the stairs.  Why would his twin ask him up instead of just finding him himself?  He knew Hodur could.  He hadn’t seen him since yesterday at breakfast, when Hodur had gone to the gardens instead of down to the stables to pick out a horse like him and Thor.  Baldur wanted to see them now before deciding which would be his war-pony when he was bigger.

“Hodur!  I’m here!”  Baldur declared as he pushed open the door.  He was immediately and sternly shushed.  Hodur’s brows were furrowed in displeasure, “You’ll wake up the baby.”

Baldur now saw what he was talking about, for swaddled in a blanket on his lap was a tiny slumbering thing.  His twin held him there as he went through a box of their old toys.  “Where did you get that?”

Hodur huffed.  “It’s not that, its him.  And he is Loki, our new brother.”

“Really?”  Baldur crouched down to see him better.  “When did we get him?  Father isn’t back yet.”

“Father sent him home first—No.”  Hodur slapped the hand he knew reached out to poke the baby.  “You’ll upset him.”

“But I want to touch him too!”  Baldur pouted.  It wasn’t fair.  Hodur knew all about the new baby and he didn’t!  It was like a secret.  They’d never had any secrets from each other before.

“Then you hold him.  Nicely.”  Baldur wasn’t too bad, but Thor could get very rough at times.  He gently set the newborn in his twin’s arms, showing him how to hold Loki.  “Talk to him softly, he needs to learn your voice too.”  He didn’t need to wonder what that meant.  For Loki slowly blinked his eyes open and revealed what he was.

Baldur couldn’t help but smile.  “He’s so cute!  And tiny!  Like I could sneak you off in my saddlebag~”  He kissed him on the forehead.  The baby reached out, making soft noises, feeling his cheek and hair.

“What does he look like,” Hodur asked.  Baldur knew he was the only one Hodur asked this of.  He didn’t trust anyone else to tell him.  And, frankly, Baldur wouldn’t let anyone.

“Well, he’s tiny, like you know.  He’s got black hair, just like yours too!  He’s very soft and kinda squishy.  He has kinda pale skin, like how I am pale compared to you.  And his eyes are like yours… except they are all green instead of black.”

“Green…” Hodur whispered happily.  “That’s good.”

“How long have you had him?”

“Since yesterday morning.  I wanted to show you but you didn’t come back.”

“And you’re taking care of him…alone?”

“Yes?”

“Should he be with Mother?”

Hodur only shrugged.  “I don’t know.  They brought him to me and said I get to raise him.”  

“Oh… well, I’ll help too!”

It got a little better now that his twin was there to help him.  He knew just as much as caring for an infant as Hodur, or even less.  But Baldur’s sight gave his twin reassurance.  He would be able to tel if something was wrong, if something didn’t look right.  The diapers were fine, as were the feedings and little baths when Loki needed them, Baldur told him.  But it was more.  Baldur could alk about all the wonderful things he could see.  Just as he did with his own brother.

“Are you really sure you get to keep him?”  Baldur whispered in the darkness.  He could not help another yawn. A baby was exhausting despite how much they slept!  Loki was snuggled in between them, sucking contentedly on Hodur’s finger since his belly was full of milk.

He could feel the expression on Hodur’s face.  “Yes Baldur.  I mean, I won’t be the best, not at first.  But since he’s like me he’ll always have me. I won’t let other people hurt him.”

Baldur reached out and laid a hand on his twin’s arm.  He knew how hard it was for him, and yet, he didn’t.  He and Thor didn’t have anything like Hodur’s blindness.  They were… normal, if everyone’s word was something to go on.  Even at their best as his brothers there were times that even they failed him.  “I’ll help keep him safe too.  I’ll try, really hard.”

Hodur smiled and Baldur felt the darkness light up.  “I know you will, Baldur.  You already do.”

~*~*~

“Thor!”

Thor turned as he heard one of his brother’s shout across the hall.  Baldur came bursting out of his twin’s room, white hair flowing around him.  His face was beaming as he caught his brother’s hand and starting dragging him back the way he came.  “Hurry up Thor!”

Thor chuckled.  “Allright allright.  Where are you going to take me?  I know the way to our brother’s room…”

“Yes, but you don’t know the surprise!”  Baldur nudged the door back open with the foot and kept going.  There were a lot of baskets that Thor didn’t recognize.  And was that a baby bottle and tiny clothes on the table?  Baldur pulled him past and out onto the balcony.

Their brother was sitting on the balcony in the sunshine.  It shone on his glossy black hair that tumbled down his back.  His twin brothers were younger and still had the long hair of childhood.  Thor straightened his shoulders.  He was going to be a teenager soon so he had already had his first haircut.  Hodur turned and smiled up at him.  It was amazing how Hodur could hear everything that went on around them.  Once Thor had asked him how he knew who is was that was approaching him.  “Your stride, Thor.  Plus, you always smell a little bit like lightning.”

He glanced at the dark eyes for a moment.  Where everyone else had eyes where the coloured iris stopped at the whites, Hodur’s eyes were completely black.  Pupil, iris, and the whites.  All black.  They shone like a night sky.  And there was a distant light shining out from them like the moon or a star.  No one else had eyes like Hodur.

Hodur sat cross-legged on the balcony with a baby in his lap.  One hand supported the infant while the other held out a handful of seeds.  Songbirds had come to visit his brother and feed on the snack.  He always envied Hodur’s trick.  He could never get birds to come to him.  They always flew off with such angry tweets when he tried to catch them.  They were even going to the baby!  They gently butted their heads against the cheeks and allowed the little fingers to work over their feathers.

Wait… baby?  Thor blinked.  When did the baby get here?  “Who is that?”

“Surprise!”  Baldur threw up his arms.  “This is our new baby brother!”

“New brother?”  But… Mother’s belly had not been swollen.  Where had he come from?  Hodur and Baldur had come out of Mother’s tummy…  Oh.  Oh right!  “Is this the Jotunheim baby?  How did he get here?  Isn’t he supposed to be all blue and frost giant-y?”

Hodur laughed while Baldur rolled his eyes.  “He’s half frost giant so that’s why he looks like Father.  But when he’s older I bet he can shoot ice and make it snow!”

Thor pouted, “Why can’t he do that now?”

“He’s too little.  Give him a chance to grow up first.”

“But you two took forever to grow up!  I don’t want to waaaaiiiit…  Ow!”  Thor rubbed his head as Baldur thumped him.  “Stop that!  Mother does that.  Don’t you start too!”

“Then stop whining Thor,” Hodur grinned as he spread the seeds on the floor in front of him and used his now free hands to gently place the baby in Thor’s own lap.  Thor held him gingerly.  At least he wasn’t as tiny as the twins had been as babies.  “You are the biggest big brother and have to be a good example and all the things Mother says~”

“Mmm…”  Thor looked down at the baby while the baby had his face turned up at him.  The little face drew tight.  Oh no. Not the crying!  “Uh uh, hi!  I’m Thor!  I know you haven’t met me yet but I’m your brother too.  The biggest one.  Me, then Hodur and Baldur.  I guess you are the baby now…”  As he spoke the tight face melted away and the happy face from before returned.  Oh good, now he wouldn’t cry.  Maybe he hadn’t know who he was.  “You have really pretty eyes, like Hodur’s…”

They were.  All green like leaves on a tree or soft grass.  The more he looked the more he was drawn into them.  There were tiny flecks of blue here and there, swirling like snowflakes.  Then he realized the baby was just as blind as Hodur was.  “Oh!  This makes us even now!”

“Even?”  The twins both tilted their heads and spoke at the same time.

“Yes!  There are four of us now.  Now when we play games or spar everyone has a partner~  We can go hunting monsters and hide then seek and riding and finally be balanced at the table!  Father and Mother at the head and two of us on either side.  That way no yucky men can sit near Mother again.”  Thor shuddered and the twins made noises as they remembered.  It had been an ally or some sort of ambassador from another realm who had been seated next to her and started saying all these weird things and making strange faces.  Thor had finally kicked him under the table, right before Odin had thrown the man out.

“That’s rule number one,” Baldur whispered conspiratorily to the baby, who turned his ear towards him.  “Father taught it to us.  Nobody messes with Mother!”

Hodur spoke on the other side and once again Loki turned his little head.  “Because Mother never lets anything ever happen to her children.  I just hope you can meet her soon…”

And Loki cooed.

~*~*~

Frigga looked up as someone came thudding into her room.  It sounded like Thor and within seconds her guess was correct.  He blew into the room like a summer storm, whirling this way and that looking for something.  Without pause in her weaving, she asked, “What did you lose Thor?”

“My hammer!”  He picked up a pile of cloth then dropped it back into place.  “I need it to protect my brothers!”

“Ah,” Frigga chuckled with a smile.  One of her handmaidens had tripped over the toy earlier so she had put it into her basket for safekeeping.  The wooden hammer had been fashioned for her eldest after Odin had let it slip that Thor would be the most likely to inherit the hammer Mjolnir.  “Here it is.  What do you need it for?  Does Mother need to come as well?”

“No!”  Thor looked horrified.  Oh when had her boy started to become a young man?  “I can do it.  I am the biggest big brother after all.”

Frigga’s weaving paused.  Biggest big brother?  She had never heard him use that title before.  Always it was simply big brother.  “So nothing is wrong with Hodur and Baldur?”

Thor groaned from the doorway which he had just been ready to run out of.  His shoulders slumped and he was obviously perturbed at being delayed.  “No Mother.  But if I don’t get back to Hodur, Baldur, and Loki something might get them!  Bye!”

… now who was Loki? 

~*~*~

“I found it!  Did anything happen?”  Thor panted breathlessly as he swept into Hodur’s room.  The twins were on Hodur’s bed.  The newborn was awake and happy after his bath.  He thought it a great game with wiggling his arms and legs as the light twin tried to dress him.  Hodur laughed along with the baby’s happy sounds, nose nuzzled in the soft hair.  

“No,” Baldur grunted, hand chasing one of Loki’s tiny arms, “just a very sneaky baby!”

Thor threw himself on his stomach at the end of the bed.  He’d stay there just in case anything came through the door.  He touched a finger to one of the baby’s palms.  The tiny fingers immediately closed around it.  And drew it to his mouth, trying to gum it.  Thor laughed and wiggled it.  

Finally Baldur managed to dress the baby.  Just as the newborn let out something similar to a yawn. Hodur tucked him into the nest of blankets, and the twins curled around it on either side.  “We should tell him a good night story…”  Thor whispered.

“We should!  How about it Hodur?  You tell them the best.”

“Alright,” Hodur answered.  He tucked closer to the baby and laid a hand over the little stomach.  “Once upon a time…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The news finally gets to Frigga that there's a baby in the palace >_> Also, where has Odin been this whole time?


	4. Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frigga finally figures out that not only as the newborn arrived in Asgard, that he's been in the care of his blind older brother for days. 
> 
> Frigga is certainly not pleased.

Instinct had bothered Frigga throughout her sleep.  Something was wrong.  Someone needed her.  But what could it be?  Odin was safely on his way home from Jotunheim.  All three of her sons were happy and healthy.  The kingdom was at peace.  So what was there to make her feel uneasy?  She finally realized it the next morning.  Thor, and what he had said the night before.  The change in the way he referred to himself and the mention of this Loki.  So Frigga set out to find her eldest.

And, as it was the way of the eldest, she could not find him.  Thor was everywhere nowadays.  The servants said he was in the stable, the stable-hands that he was in the practice ring, the sparring teachers that he had run back to the palace.  That boy.  So when she came across Baldur, her youngest, she decided to ask him instead.  He leapt to his feet at her call, his face lit up by a brilliant smile.  Yet as her white haired son ran to her side Frigga realized something.

She had not seen Hodur for days.

When had she last seen him?  Two, three days ago?  The boy was always so reserved and quiet.  Especially when he was compared to his father and brothers.  While they were loud and boisterous he was able to slip through things almost unnoticed.  She knew many servants thought that his blindness had addled his brain to make him so quiet.  She knew that he wasn’t addled.  He was listening.  

“Baldur, where is Hodur?” Frigga asked after Baldur had thrown his arms about her waist in a hug.

“He’s up in his room with the baby,” Baldur answered, blowing a stray white strand of hair.  “Loki is taking a really long nap.  I got bored so I came down here to play.”

There was that name again.  “And who is Loki, dear?”

Baldur leaned back.  His eyes narrowed and his mouth pouted like she had asked the silliest question in the world.  “The baby!  Baby Loki!  You know Mama, our new baby brother.  Hodur’s taking care of him because that’s what Papa said to do.”  Knowing his mother was now well informed, Baldur once more ran off.  He wanted to find where he left his toy horse in the garden.  He would show it to Loki later!

There was no moment of shock.  There was not a moment of her body held by icy dread.  No.  Frigga moves quick on her feet as her mind races.  Could Odin really have done this?  Or had someone taken it upon themselves to do this?  Odin must have sent the child born from the treaty in Jotunheim ahead of him.  Why had it not been brought to her?  How, out of everyone, had Hodur gotten the child.  Despite knowing that Hodur was more than capable to take care of himself, how had he been taking care of the newborn?  He was only eight years old!  He was but a child!  Then, she was loathe to admit it, how could someone without sight care for a baby?

Her dress was snapping with the speed by the time she came across some of her handmaidens on the way to her son’s room.  They turned to greet her, and immediately shrank back.  They saw the look in her eyes.  And they knew she was in trouble.  With a flick of her hand she commanded them to follow.  “The newborn.  Why was he not brought to me?”

“B-because my lady!”  One handmaiden stuttered, only answering after Frigga had cast a harsh glance over her shoulder.  She wrung her hands as they struggled to keep up with their queen.  She looked to another to answer.  There were none to help her.  “The guard that brought the newborn… said that Odin commanded he be brought to Hodur because the child is as blind as he.”

Frigga froze in her tracks.  It was so sudden her braid snapped in the air.  Her usually shining eyes narrowed.  “Do not refer to my son in that tone of voice.”  Her words hid her reaction.  The newborn was blind?  Poor dear…  But why would Odin send him to their second son?  With her experience raising Hodur she knew how to mother someone blind since birth.  And surely the Allfather knew that Hodur was much too young to raise the baby.

The handmaidens followed behind as she walked once more.  Their apologies were like the twitters of birds.  Three days!  The child had been here three days and she hadn’t known!  Any number of things could have happened within that time.  What if he was sick?  What if he was starving?  Nothing seemed amiss when she arrived at Hodur’s door, but it could be hiding any number of things.

She knocked rapidly, “Hodur, its Mother.”  She didn’t pause for a reply and swept through the door.  Hodur raised his face in her direction as she entered.  One hand was frozen in midair, grasped around a baby rattle.  His legs were crossed and the baby was snuggled in them, head supported by his legs.  Drawing close she scooped the newborn up in her arms.  Relief washed over her when she saw he was awake and alive.  “I’ll take him now.”

Frigga doesn’t realize what she is doing.  All she could think of was the new baby.  She’s rather surprised how much he looked like an Aesir.  She had expected some hint of his frost giant heritage.  But his skin is pale and his hair is dark.  But as she looks down into his wide eyes she knew what the women had said was true.  The child was blind.  There was no whites nor pupils, but blue flecked green covering the entire surface of the orbs.  Pity welled up in her throat but she pushed it down.  

“Mother, stop!”  A weight finally grabs hold her skirt and she looks down to see Hodur has followed.  His eyes are wide as well.  And there is fear in his face.  She made a soft sound of reassurance.  “It’s ok, Hodur.  Mother will take care of the baby now…”

But somehow her words failed to comfort the child.  He only clings to her harder as they near her rooms.  The newborn’s face screws tight and suddenly her arms are full of wailing infant.  She barely slows as she gently bounces the infant.  Yet even cooing and speaking to him softly does nothing to console him.  “Please don’t kill him!”

Frigga paused in the center of her room.  In shock, she looked down at her dark haired child.  Now that she finally listened she realized that the entire journey between their rooms he has been begging her to stop.  Hodur is weeping, and weeping hard.  The tears roll down his tears and fell to the ground as tiny orbs of glowing light.  They pinked against the floor as miniature stars.  Hodur hardly ever cries.  Thor and Baldur were much more likely.  Never Hodur.  But he is.  And he is frightened.  At his cries, the infant only cries harder.  His tears freeze as they fall like little beads of ice.  

“Hodur…”  She carefully crouches right there next to him.  His hands are tight balls that rub at his eyes.  “What did you say?”

Her boy doesn’t hesitate.  Save for a soft sniffle.  “Please don’t hurt Loki.  Please don’t kill him.”  His eyes and face aren’t focused on her.  They are tuned into the newborn.  His body is coiled, as if he will leap at her if she moves.  

“Out.”  Frigga commanded her handmaidens.  A narrow glance silenced their protests.  A wave of her hand prevented them from taking Hodur with them.  When they are gone, her precense softens.  She carefully handed the wailing newborn to her second son.  The effects are both immediate and shocking.  The newborn instantly calmed.  His tiny hands grasped at Hodur’s long black hair.  He pressed his tiny face close to the boy’s shoulder and she could have sworn his nose worked to take in his scent.  Hodur wrapped his arms around the newborn protectively, holding him close.  His cries softened into murmers, pressing them into the baby’s hair.  “What do you mean?”

“You can’t hurt Loki,” Hodur sniffled, “you just can’t!  It’s not his fault.  I… I know you don’t want someone else who is blind, but-but I can take care of him!  He won’t bother you.”  Hodur’s grip tigthtened.  His body instinctively huddled over the baby and turned so that it was between his mother and the baby.  Hodur is well between simply being a brother and protecting a newborn seen as one’s own child, Frigga realizes.

But the knowledge that Hodur would even think that she would harm the baby breaks her heart.  And she realizes it is her fault.  In her rush to retrieve the child, and her anger at the handmaidens, she had been too abrupt.  Too sudden.  Because she had burst in with little explanation, there wasn’t much else for him to conclude.  She should have remembered that Hodur reacted baby to such events.  He had thought she had come in anger.  And that anger must be directed at the newborn.  “Hodur, I would never hurt the baby.”

The words did calm Hodur, but only a little.  “You… you aren’t?”

“No.  I only came to bring the baby with me.  I was very surprised; I didn’t know that he had arrived at all.  I wasn’t mad at you, or the baby.  I was mad at the servants and my handmaidens.  It was wrong of them to bring a newborn baby to you.”

“Loki.”

“Hmm?”

Hodur pouted in obvious displeasure.  He shifted the baby to indicate he spoke of him.  “Loki.  Not him.  Not the baby.  This is Loki, my baby brother.”  She knows he is trying to be strong and brave.  But as she watches the face crumbles again.  “I thought… they said that… that because he’s blind like me, you and Father didn’t want him.  So… so…”  The eyes watered again.  With a pained sound she wrapped her arms around her son, her baby.  The fear is past now since he tucks readily in her arms, letting her protect him.

When he’s ready she gently leads him to one of the couches.  She sits down and settles him on her lap.  Her children will never be too big to sit with her.  He still clings to the baby, to Loki.  “Hodur… I was thinking about the baby.  A baby needs to be with their mommy.  Just like how I took care of Thor and you and Baldur…” She pauses and then knows what she needs to say.  “But you took very, very good care of Loki.”  And it was true.  Loki is a healthy and happy baby.  He’s been fed regularly judging by his appearance and energy level.  He’s also been bathed and his diapers changed.  

Hodur nodded eagerly.  “Yes!  When he gets smelly I change his diaper or give him a bath.  Not too hot and not too cold.  I know which cry is ‘hungry-cry’ or ‘please-come-here-Hodur’ cry.”  Hodur reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a baby bottle.  “I finally got Helga to start bringing milk up to my room.  Loki likes it.  He’s makes little snuffle sounds when he eats.”  Hodur is still cautious, but she can hear the eagerness breaking through.

“That’s good that you got milk.  Baby needs lots of milk.”  She praises him because she is hiding the rage inside.  Helga knew all this time?  Didn’t that woman have any sense?  How could she leave a newborn in the care of a child, and then not even provide milk right away?  Why had she not come and told her queen about the baby?  “Hodur.  Babies also need to be with their mommies.  You’ve done a very good job, and you can keep helping me take care of baby Loki.  He needs to move into my room so I can.”  She takes out Hodur’s hand and sets it against the crib that is near the couch.  “This is Loki’s crib; you’ve all had it when you were little.  It’s safe and tiny so a baby won’t fall out.  It’ll be right by my bed in case Loki needs me…”

She watches Hodur’s face.  As she thought he seems reluctant to the idea.  Loki is dozing in his arms.  One tiny hand is wrapped in the dark twin’s black hair.  “You’ll… you’ll take care of Loki, right?  You promise to feed him and rock him and sing to him?  Tell him lots of stories and hold him and talk to him?  He likes that.  He just needs to know you’re there.  Just because we can’t see doesn’t mean we talk hear.”

Frigga finds herself having to blink away the tears.  “Of course I will, Hodur.  And you’ll help me, right?  You know Loki better right now.”

Hodur perks up at that.  “I can come visit him?”  The way he says it revealed his fear.  That if he left Loki, he’d never be with him again.  That leaving him in another’s care means some sort of disappearance.

“Yes.  He needs you and all of his big brothers.  Soon he’ll be walking and running around with all of you.  Just for right now, when young and tiny, Mother will watch over him.”  Hodur listens to her promise.  A pause.  Then, he nods.  Slowly, so gentle as to not awaken Loki, he leans over and sets the baby in her arms.  His hand lingers against the downy hear and over his chubby cheeks.  Her dark son leaned close and whispered something in Loki’s ear that even she cannot hear.  

When he kisses Loki’s cheek, she knows that Hodur has given Loki to her care.

~*~*~

“Milady…”

Frigga mumbles in the bed and turns over.  She knows right away it is one of her handmaidens.  And she also knows right away that Loki has not awakened hungry.  The room is still and quiet.  “What is it?”

“Prince Hodur, milady.  He sleeps beside the crib again.”

The queen sighed and slipped out of bed.  This had happened every night since the newborn had come into her care.  Hodur had seemed comfortable with the change at first.  And why not?  Taking care of a newborn must have been difficult for a child.  One would imagine he would be relieved.  But Hodur hovered.  He was constantly in the room or nearby.  The first night he had settled next to the crib, talking softly to the baby, hand reaching over the side to touch his hand.

She had gently gotten Hodur up and directed him back to his own room.  The handmaidens had even tried to comfort the child when he resisted.  Hodur was a big boy now.  He didn’t need to sleep in the nursery anymore.  Didn’t he have a nice, big room upstairs with all his toys and things.  Hodur listened to them silently with lips drawn tight.  He had left only to return the next night.  Sneaking in after he thought everyone asleep.  It is a constant battle, or a game.

She finds him curled up on the floor pressed against the legs of the crib.  A stolen blanket tucked around him, a slim arm as his pillow.  He sleeps as peacefully as the babe.  Their breaths are slow and gentle.  “I can bring him back to his room,” one of the handmaidens offers.

Frigga looks over the two and then decides.  “No.  I think Hodur needs to know his little brother is safe.  I’ll let him sleep here until he is comfortable.  I now think rushing him will do no good.  Bring in a little bed if you can find one.  Or a cot or cushions will do.”

In his sleep, Hodur smiles.  

~*~*~

Now that Hodur knows he can sleep near the baby, he calms.  For much of the day he is nearby, holding or talking to the baby.  Yet other parts of the day he leaves his brother in their mother’s care.  He goes to play with Thor or Baldur or whatever it was that her strange child did.  Every night, he returns to the little bed next to the crib, telling Loki a story before one or both fall off to sleep.  Mostly it is just Hodur who sleeps there.  But she has awakened in the morning to find that two or all three of her elder sons are crammed onto the bed.  

It is several days later that the news is brought to Queen Frigga.

Odin has returned.  


	5. Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Odin answers as to why the baby was not brought directly into the care of Frigga. Secretly, Hodur deals with his fear that their father will not accept a second blind child.

The moment Loki was awake and his tummy full of milk Hodur had stolen him for an adventure.  It wasn’t far, just out to the soft grass in a warm patch of mother’s garden.  Hodur enjoyed the sounds and smells of the garden.  He wanted to share it with Loki.  He liked it out here.  It was calm and yet there was always something happening.  

The two brothers moved their heads as hooves shuffled in the blades of grass.  “Those are the deer that mother allows to wander through.  No one can hurt them.”  He sits still as one of the does walks up to him to make sure he and the tiny thing are safe.  “This is my baby brother, like the little deer you have.”  He tells her softly.  

She snuffles close to Loki in his lap.  The baby cooed as he felt her soft fur, fingers curling into it.  He lost his balance for a moment as his tiny body fell against her snout.  She rights him before curling her legs to settle near them.  Soon all of the deer are resting there, save for the little fawns that frisk and jump about in play.  Loki can hear them and makes a sound like a laugh and Hodur smiles with him.  He is quietly telling him the story of the Lady Cailleach herding her deer through the white snow when he hears the voices drift from the rooms.  

For a moment Hodur thinks of springing to his feet and racing to greet his father.  Then he thinks better of it and wraps his arms tighter around Loki.  Father had sent the newborn ahead of him.  He had told the servants to give Loki to him and not tell Mother.  Did he not want the baby?  The same anxiety that had started with their mother taking Loki from him rose in his throat.  “I… I know she said she won’t hurt you Loki, and Father has never really hurt any of us…but… We’ll stay out here for now.”

“Aa?” Loki asked before sucking on his thumb.  His other tiny hand curled into a lock of hair falling over Hodur’s shoulder.  He likes it when he talks to him.  It is safe.  It is comforting.  He thinks about asking for milk, but he really isn’t hungry.

“What were you thinking?”  Frigga demanded.  She caught Odin in her glare and held him.  He was going to answer for this.  Odin, the Allfather, High King, squirmed under it.

“He needed to come to you.  He was newly born and Laufey was refusing to feed him, lest they two of them get attached.” 

“But then why didn’t you bring him yourself?  Why send a guard?  Did you explicitly tell the guard to bring him directly to me?”   She needs to know whether the command came from Odin.  There is a chance that people had assumed things along the way, but so many different people?  If the latter is the case, she would have to work some major changes to their household.  

“There were things I need to take care of!”  Odin snapped back.  “You know as well as I that I needed to make sure all parts of the treaties were honored.  I sent the guard to bring the baby back to Asgard.  He should have known that meant you…”  Odin trailed off.  His one eye widened as he looked away.  “I… I did mention that he should bring the baby to see Hodur… since he is the only other brother born blind.”

Frigga groaned softly and covered her face with one hand.  Odin had to mentally keep himself from taking a step back out of her range.  Now that he speaks it, he can see how leaving his orders rather opened how allowed others to take it as it was.  The guard had thought it had meant that the baby was to be brought to Hodur’s care.  And then the women and servants had believed the same thing.  Frigga had told him the moment he had stepped off the Bifrost all that had happened.  That she had only recently been made aware of the newborn, and that he had spent three days alone in the eldest twin’s care.  Nothing bad had come of it, and though he is a man, even he can think of what might have gone wrong.

“Forgive me Frigga,” Odin whispered as he drew close.  He wrapped an arm around her and drew his wife to his chest.  She is still stiff, still angry, and has every right to be.  But she allows it.  “I needed time to think.  To wonder at everything that has happened.  When Hodur was born…”

He doesn’t need to say anymore for Frigga to know of what he speaks.  He had showed such pride in Thor, so rambuncous like himself.  The excitement was even greater when he had found that Frigga, his own wife was pregnant, and with twins.  But when Hodur, the first twin, was born Odin had drawn back.  Blind?  How could any son of his, the great Odin, been born like thus?  With such a handicap, such a disability?  There were none other like him in all of the Aesir, and neither amongst the rest of Asgard.  What were they to do with him?  How was Asgard supposed to raise him?  All that shock and not knowing had turned into blaming the newborn himself, especially when his younger twin was born shining and perfect.

Frigga knows that Odin is to blame.  She is as well.  Just because there wasn’t anyone like Hodur shouldn’t have meant they treated him in the way they did.  They might try to hide it in their age or their inexperience, but they should have been better parents to him.  She had hoped that Hodur wouldn’t remember his own infancy and what all had happened, but there are times when she knows he does.  It does not help that there are people who are still in the household that remember the time and still treat him as such.  But also in Odin’s words, echoing beyond the grave, is the anger of his own father Bor.  The man was blessedly gone but the demand for obedience and protection had been hammered into his own children since their own birth.  Even now as a man Odin still struggles not to place that on his own children.  “I blamed him, Frigga.  I thought how could my own son curse me so?  But now I fear, since the same has happened in our youngest son, the fault lies in me…”

“What?”  Frigga looked up at her husband.  What could make him say such a thing?  “What are you talking about?”

He dropped his arm and walked away.  Crossing his arms behind his back he stood looking out one of the window’s to the garden.  His eye falls on his second son, sitting amongst the deer who are skittish around everyone else.  The king’s ravens Huginn and Muninn have already flown over to visit him.  Huginn sits on his knee speaking to him, while Muninn is curled in his lap.  So far Hodur has been the only other person who had ever understood the secret speech of the ravens.  A happy shriek came from his lap and Hodur turned, revealing that he is holding the newborn and the baby has the raven in his arms to rub his cheeks against the soft feathers.  As if sensing his gaze, Hodur turned his head in Odin’s direction.  His face remained a mask, his eyes shadowed, and his arms tightened around the baby.

“It is the only thing I can think of, Frigga.  There are two different mothers.  They come from two different realms.  The only thing they share between them is me, their father and sire.”  Odin turned back to the room.  “It must be me.  What if it is in my seed, my blood?  I am the reason that two of my children have born without sight in their eyes.”

There is not much she can say.  It could be true.  And it could not be true.  There are some things that even Odin and she, with all their powers, cannot unravel.  She wraps him in her arms and lays her head on his shoulders.  Whatever the cause, they know by now that whatever the cause, it is not right to take it out on their sons.  Their children are precious; gifts most beautiful and sacred.  They must do all they can to raise them up right and proper.

~*~*~

Hodur excitedly ran up to the cradle.  No one is in his mother’s rooms at the moment.  She and all her handmaidens were out preparing for something.  It was probably a feast to welcome their Father back.  However, that is not the reason for his excitement.  Loki is nine days old.  It has been nine days since he was born.  “Good morning Loki!”

He listened to Loki yawn.  He made a soft sound and rubbed his little fists over his face.  “I’m sorry if I woke you up, but we need to get going!”  Hodur gently reached into the cradle and brought the baby out.  Tucking him against his shoulder he padded into the washroom.  “First you and I are going to take a bath.  Then we’re going to get dressed.  And then I’m going to take you all around Asgard to introduce you to everyone!”

The water waiting for them was clean, but a little cold.  He stuck his hand in and summoned his magic until the water was nice and warm.  Then he dumped in the liquid Mother had made so the surface of the water would be covered in bubbles.  Hodur made sure to sit on the bench along the side of the tub so he and Loki wouldn’t be in too deep of water.  The newborn kicked at the water with his legs and splashed with his arms.  He liked the feel of the water and the bubbles.  Hodur laughed along with him.  Water could be a little scary at times, especially when it got so deep he couldn’t feel the bottom.  As long as he could still feel the side or the bottom, it was fun!

“Scrubby scrub scrub~”  Hodur sang as he washed the wisps of Loki’s hair.  “See, your hair is nice and short.  It doesn’t take very long.  Mine and Baldur’s hair is longer, and Mother’s is even longer than that!”

Once Loki was washed Hodur scrambled out of the bath and dried both of them.  It took him a while to dress Loki since he really delighted to wiggle about, but soon he was in a soft, new baby robe.  He wrapped him in a small blanket before tucking him into the sling Hodur had tried around his chest after donning his own robe.  It gave Loki a place to snuggle and rest and allowed Hodur to carry him without his arms getting tired.  Loki seemed to like it.  He snuggled against the warmth of his brother’s chest and caught his long hair in his hands.  

“What are you going to do when you’re walking?”  Hodur laughed as he walked through the palace hallways.  “My hair isn’t long enough yet for you to hold on to if you’re walking… maybe I can keep letting it grow.  I guess we’ll just have to wait until then.”  He came to a side chamber where the skalds of the court resided.  He knew exactly where the Aesir he wanted to see was; he could hear the distinct notes of his lyre.  “Bragi!”

The skald looked up and smiled as the second prince entered.  Many of the other musicians and entertainers getting ready for the feast greeted him warmly.  They had a soft spot for the one member of the royal family who showed an interest in their arts.  “Good day, Hodur.  What brings you here?”

“I wanted to show you my new baby brother, Bragi!”  Hodur beamed as he spoke.  The distant stars in his black eyes shone out.  He cradled the sling around his chest closer and leaned closer for Bragi to see.  A pale chubby face peeked out at him.  Ah, so this was the newest little prince.  “His name is Loki!”

“Loki, a fine name for a very handsome baby~”  Bragi chuckled as he tickled a foot that was peeking out of the blanket.  The baby cooed and drew it back.  He cannot help but feel the excitement that is bursting out of the young prince.  The two princes have the same dark hair and the same beautiful eyes.  Bragi can almost feel the song weaving itself together.

Hodur smiled at the compliment.  He rubbed his cheek against Loki.  “I want you to see Loki first, because you’re my favorite.”  He’s always liked Bragi.  The skald never made fun of him or talked to him funny because he couldn’t see.  He always made sure to talk to him when Bragi was walking or singing for the court.  He’d let Hodur sit next to him and tell him stories or sing him sagas.  Bragi even let him practice music on his harp; he never allowed anyone else to touch it.

“Would you like me to sing Loki a song?” Bragi offered.

Hodur politely shook his head.  “Tonight maybe?  I need to show Loki to lots of people today.  We’ll be tired by then, and then you can sing him to sleep like you do for me sometimes!”  He allowed Bragi to chuck the newborn’s cheek goodbye before scurrying about the room to show him to the rest of them.  They all cooed over and complimented the baby.  It wasn’t hard to pick up on Hodur’s excitement.

Bragi didn’t think much about Hodur showing his brother off.  He was a big brother now.  So why wouldn’t he want everyone to know about the baby?  He thought more about it once Queen Frigga came running into the chamber hours later, asking if any of them had seen her sons.  The baby was missing, as well as all three of his older brothers.  

“But I thought you said you had a new brother, Thor!”  Fandral pouted as he looked over at the baby.  “He’s even tinier than the twins are!”

“Because he’s a baby.  Duh.”  Thor declared back as he set his hands on his hips.  How could his friend be so silly?  People started as babies, _then_ grew up so they could be played with.  “Right now he’s tiny and cute!  He makes noises when you talk to him.”

“Uh huh!”  Baldur added, bouncing on his toes between Thor and Hodur.  He liked talking with Thor’s friends.  There was big Volstagg and quiet Hogun and talkative Fandral.  And then there was Sif, who was really pretty.  But shh, you couldn’t tell her that.  “When he’s all big enough we can all finally play!  We’ll be all even- eight of us!”  Baldur can’t wait.  Hodur can finally join in.  He doesn’t like that; everyone makes Hodur sit out claiming that it wouldn’t be fair to have an extra person on one side.  He knows they don’t want him because he can’t see.  

Sif, however, didn’t agree with their arguments.  “I think he’s funny looking.”  She was allowed to have her own opinion.  She just wasn’t allowed to voice it out loud.  “OW!”  She yelped as both the twins kicked her in the shin.  “Thor!”  She looked to Thor to protect her.  She only found him watching on with crossed arms and an even more crossed look on his face.  The twins, playing ever the innocents, quickly stuck their tongues out at her.

Volstagg had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.  He leaned down to get a better look at the new prince.  He, for one, loved babies.  “Hi there, little Loki~”

“Watch out, he-“   “Ow!”  “- likes to hold on to hair.”  Just as Hodur had tried to warn him, Loki had reached out and yanked on Volstagg’s hair.  Baldur had once told him that it was thick and a dark auburn.  “That’s ok,” he could tell Volstagg was smiling, “I bet he likes to feel things around him.”

“There you are!”  The group of children turned when they heard the frantic voice.  It was the princes’ mother, the Queen.  Sif and the three boys floundered to bow in time.  Thor and his brothers, in the meantime, tried to figure out why she looked so perturbed.  She looked between the three of them and sighed in relief when she saw that Hodur did indeed have the baby.  “Where have you been?  Don’t you know that I’ve been looking for you?”

“Uh uh.”  “No.”  Thor and Baldur answered their mother.  Hodur stayed quiet, bouncing Loki in his arms.  “Don’t you boys know how important today is?  And you needed to tell me if you were taking the baby.”

“Today is Loki’s name day.”  Hodur answered.  Of course he knew.  “That’s why I took Loki.  To show him to everyone and let them know what his name is.  He needs to meet everyone.”

Oh.  Frigga felt all the annoyance deflate out of her.  She knelt amongst her children, wrapping an arm around the dark twin.  “But that’s what the feast tonight is for.  Thor, did you forget to tell Hodur about it?”

“…opps…”

Hodur’s face expressed shock.  “It… it is?  I thought you and Father didn’t want to have one…”

“And that’s why we’ve been showing baby Loki around.  Like his own name day…”  Baldur tried to cover for his brothers.  Were they in trouble?  He had thought it a wonderful idea when Hodur had planned the day with them.  They’d show Loki all around the palace and the city.  They’d tell everyone his name and introduce him to their friends…

“I see…  Well, I think Loki is very happy that you showed him to all your friends.  And we still have time to get back before the feast starts.  How does that sound?”  She smiled gently at her children, who all beamed back at her now that they knew she wasn’t angry.  She nodded at Thors’ friends, allowing them to go home.  “I like your sling, Hodur.”  She said as she took the twin’s hands and let Thor walk in front of her as they headed back to the palace.  “Is it a very good carrier for a baby?”

~*~*~

Hodur waited nervously between his brothers.  They had all been dressed up for the feast.  Mother had described how the naming ceremony for Loki would go.  Thor said there wasn’t anything to worry about, from what he could remember from the ceremony where Hodur and Baldur were named.  The only difference was that the name was usually chosen on that day.  Loki already had a name.  The name was Hodur gave him.  

Baldur described everything softly in his ear.  The record keeper stood before the people and asked who the sire of the child was.  Odin answered that it was he.  Then the keeper asked who would be the child’s mother, even if he was not of her womb.  Frigga answered.  Frigga then approached the throne with baby Loki wrapped in nothing but a blanket in her arms.  She climbed the steps and set him at Odin’s feet.  She moved the blanket so he was exposed for Odin to see.  She backed down the steps.  Their father’s wolves, one on either side of the throne, sniffed his scent.  The ravens above the throne eyed him.  

Hodur found himself biting his lip until he heard his father reach down to the floor and pick the baby up.  A basin of water was then brought forward and he began to bathe the newborn.  Loki made a whimpering noise.  He didn’t like the temperature of the water.  Odin quickly dried him and then dressed him in a soft, new baby robe. 

Odin gently set the child on his knee, sure to support his back and head.  He looked out over the court.  Everyone waited for him to speak.  For a moment his eyes lingered on his wife.  And then his sons.  Thor and Baldur looked on with excitement.  Hodur was more subdued, as if he feared that he wouldn’t name him and accept him as a son.

“This is my fourth child.  This is my youngest son.  Child to Frigga; brothers to my sons Thor, Hodur, and Baldur.  Behold your newest prince, Asgard.  His name is Loki!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The naming ceremony is taken from what I could glean of Norse naming ceremonies from sagas and internet hunting. The naming ceremony generally took place on the ninth day of life. There the male head of the household would accept the child into the family and give them a name. There was also mentions of laying the child at the father's feet for him to decide (expose child to die or accept into family), then bathing, dressing, and naming.


End file.
